Bill Gurley

Bill Gurley is a General Partner at Benchmark Capital, one of the most successful venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. His most famous investment is in Uber, where he led Benchmark's Series A investment in 2011 at a $60 million valuation — an investment that at its peak represented the largest venture capital return in history as Uber grew to a multi-hundred billion dollar company. Gurley's professional blog "Above the Crowd" became one of the most widely read sources of analysis on venture market dynamics, marketplace business models, startup valuation methodologies, and the risks of "burn rate" competition driven by cheap capital. His analyses of marketplace businesses (comparing defensibility, liquidity dynamics, and network effects across different platforms) are considered foundational thinking for platform business evaluation. Gurley also became a prominent voice cautioning about overvaluation in late-stage private markets and SPACs, and he was publicly critical of WeWork-style "growth at all costs" business models. He also had a notable public dispute with Uber's founding CEO Travis Kalanick.